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Sunday, January 09, 2005

Ready Red Comin' Atcha - Still Holdin' His Ground Like a Motherfuckin' Statcha

No my friends, I can't believe it either. When DJ Stef hit me over Instant Super Secret Private Message and told me "Some dude named Ready Red is posting on my message board." I said, man it can't be THE Ready Red, but I shot him a message anyway and lo and behond, it is. The real deal Ready Red. Original DJ for the Ghetto Boys. His run didn't last beyond the success of their self-titled Def American release, and you can find out why, here, in this exclusive interview with the man, the legend, DJ READY RED.

It's an epic, once again, that's how I do. Consider this the Epilogue to the Trilogy Geto Boys.

DJ Ready Red, Original Ghetto Boy
By Matt Sonzala

How did you end up living in Houston and where exactly are you from?
I’m originally from Trenton, New Jersey. My sister came home in ’86 and wanted me to give her a hand with some things. And uh she told me we had to make a stop in Houston because she was having some problems with one of her boyfriends and wanted me to come down there and help her out.

So your sister had a boyfriend in Houston that she was having problems with and you had to come down here and check him out?
I had to come down and check him out man.

What made you stay?
Well, during that time I went to a battle of the DJs at the Rhinestone Wrangler that was down there on Murworth. And after I got finished spinnin’ a guy named NC Trahan and a guy who I got to know as Jukebox came up to me and they was telling me about the Ghetto Boys. Now before I had heard of the Ghetto Boys there was this song that used to come on the radio that I used to make fun of called “Car Freaks.” And I used to go “well that shit sound like it goes ‘Corn Flakes, Corn Flakes.’” Now lo and behold I did not know, this had to be, I moved down there early January and by February I was kind of hooked up with them.

Who was NC Trahan?
That album, Grip It! On That Other Level, if you look on that it says “In Memory of NC Trahan.” He got killed on the Raheem A&M video of “Dancefloor.”

He got killed during the shooting of the video?
Yeah during the filming of the video he got killed across the street at a gas station. He was real good peoples man.

What happened?
Uh, I guess there was some type of skirmish man and he got his face blown off bruh. He was really good people man. The only other guy who I know that was down with peanut butter pancakes. Yeah when I first came down man, we was all making pancakes one day and I said “You know what man? You know what’s the bomb?” I said, “You put peanut butter in your pancakes.” And he said “Yeah, you do that too?” Yeah he was real good peoples, a real good guy. Actually he brought me my first pair of matching turntables. Two 1200’s directly just for me and a mixer, from Evans.

So you were down here a month, you got into a DJ competition and all of a sudden you were a Geto Boy?
Yeah, well I had to go meet Lil James at that time but they were telling me that they needed a DJ because they needed some direction. Hold on, that’s my neighbors… I’m a landlord now. After he heard my demo tape, actually there was a guy named Jasper Bradley, he kind of took me under his wing and got me my first drum machine, a 606. And um he had put together two demos for me. One which made it onto Makin’ Trouble which was “Why We Live This Way.” And knowin’ that I did production, they wanted me to get down as a producer and a DJ. So that took off from there, so for the next couple of weeks, we scouted Houston around and we found an 808 drum machine, I had a 909 before I came down there, so I had an 808, a 909, a mixing board, two turntables and that’s pretty much how the Makin’ Trouble album came together.

You were an official member when the Makin’ Trouble album came out though right?
I was an official member, I was a full member. See a lot of people just had DJs. At that time, in my era, the DJ was sort of the organizer. He was like the manager of the crew. I’m talking back to the original pioneers kind of thing. The DJ was more than just the one who played records, he managed the crew. Kept everything together, kept people in check, made ‘em rehearse the routines, all of that. Now DJs in hip hop now, he’s somewhere off in the corner somewhere. Now is the time for the MC to shine, but the elements have always been DJing, MCing, Breakdancing and Graffiti. Them elements are not in force with each other. The state of hip hop we at now is wack.

Yeah?
Yeah, a lot of the bling bling and all that. There’s only so many ways you can smack a bitch, talk about rims, sell drugs.

When the Geto Boys said it all.
Yeah and after fourteen years I still see that it’s the same thing going on. I really ain’t mad about it no more. Even back then I just looked at it as something to do, I could help my mom out. But in a way it kind of gets you dark because no matter where you go it’s the same faces you see all the time man. It’s the same thing and then you start stagnating. It came to a point where they couldn’t rock to the beats, everything had to be slow tempo.

Who produced “Mind Playin’ Tricks?”
You know what? I used to go diggin’ all the time. Now if you go back in the day, that’s from Tough Guys, actually that’s “Hung Up On My Baby,” Issac Hayes, right. I used to collect 70’s soundtracks from Blaxploitation movies. And they used to have that in the bins for 99 cents, and I got it. And then at that time, Brad (Scarface) was getting into production at that time. He said “Man I want to hold some records.” And I said “Well you can fuck with that stack over there.” And he pulls out Tough Guys and Biz Markie “Pickin’ Boogers” and he says “Alright I’m gonna fuck with these.” And “Pickin’ Boogers” ain’t nothin’ but um, Marley did a good job on the drums from The Jam, which was a popular break. And so that’s “Pickin’ Boogers” underneath that and “Hung Up On My Baby.” He did a good job man. At that time I pretty much was kind of fed up with the whole thing. I wasn’t really coming to the studio as much as I did. I was kind of withholding. I wanted my money.

Well I interned in the studio, Sound Arts, the whole time during the recording of We Can’t Be Stopped and I wondered why I barely ever saw you there. No one ever really said anything.
Actually, at Sound Arts, the night Bill got shot in the eye was the night I quit. We had just got back from the BRE, the Black Radio Exclusive, and about a week before that was royalty time. I didn’t get a lot of money, but they wanted to pay me in installments after they took out all this studio time shit and all this other type of stuff. Pretty much after the Def American record that was selling pretty damn good, I never knew exactly how many of them records actually was sold.

Well lets rewind a little but man because we can get into that but you were the foundation of one of the most important groups in hip hop. You were a big part of that and I want to talk about some of those early days because I don’t think a lot of the kids today even know what was really going on back then. Now who were the Ghetto Boys when you got with them?
Well before I even heard of the Ghetto Boys you had Raheem, you had Jukebox and you had Sir Rap A Lot, which was K9, Lil J’s brother at the time. And they had “Car Freaks.” And going off the head, Jukebox was from 3rd Ward. He used to walk way out to 5th Ward at the time to see about this guy that was gonna start him a record label. So in a way, Jukebox kind of helped get James into wanting to do the rap thing. He said it was from his inspiration that he inspired that and K9 came aboard and Raheem came aboard. And they were good. We did a couple of shows together but K9 had gotten in some trouble and then it was more or less Raheem and Jukebox at the time. And Raheem wanted to go solo, so I called down one of my original MC’s from Trenton named Johnny C and that’s how he became a member and we started working on the Makin’ Trouble. Now most of that album was already written with K9, Raheem and Jukebox. “Makin’ Trouble,” “No Curfew,” “Snitches,” that was pretty much Lil J and Jukebox and the other MC’s. Johnny C saw something and he wrote “Assassins.” He wanted to show that he could flow because he thought that a lot of that was limited, because he was an MC. There’s a lot of difference between rappers and MCs. An MC will cut your ass up, eat your ass up on the mic. Where a rapper, he’ll do a rehearsed thing and he ain’t got nothing. Know what I mean? So Johnny C was shining, but that wasn’t in his heart to do that. But we went through several changes. Then it became Jukebox, Willie D and Bill, who was a dancer. Willie D was going to become a Ghetto Boy right after his album Controversy. If you check out Controversy, we do “Do It Like A G.O.” on there. One thing lead to another.

How extensively did you get to tour with the Ghetto Boys?
Well Makin’ Trouble man, we did a couple of shows. We got down with the Fat Boy’s Wipeout tour in ’87.

Went to Oakland, went to Phoenix and they were digging the sound. And that kind of died down a little bit off the Makin’ Trouble thing and we did some shows locally in Houston. Then Johnny C left. Then that’s when Willie D joined and from there we did the Grip It! On That Other Level album and we started just doing shows regularly. We was goin around the country man and people were in lines around the corners man. So things were starting to pick up. We went to places that other groups weren’t going because promoters would say “Man we got to take y’all around, because people won’t believe that y’all are here.” I remember one time we went to East St. Louis. And I won’t name no rap groups but some of the rap groups were scared to play there, but we went everywhere. There was only six of us, four of us, we had a road manager and I had a guy named Steve who used to help me carry my tables.

Who was the road manager?
The road manager was Chief, Tony Randle. And I said on that “Rebel Rap Family,” we concord new territories man. And no matter where we went we always gave an A Game show. We always put it down, we always got a lot of love, we was accessible.

That was one of my favorite things back in the day, I talked to Scarface about this too, a lot of rap shows today are wack. Back in the day you guys actually had a production and shit. And it was raw, you didn’t have explosions and shit, but you had a show mapped out and had a real ass show. Did you do everything off vinyl?
Well I had 1200’s, a beat machine, sampler, drum machine, and on some things, yeah just spinning from the records. Did it live man, no Dat. We did it live so if the needle jumped and it was not my fault because I would tape off sections of the stage that was weak. If they crossed that line and caused my table to jump then they got the fine and if my tables jumped on me then I got the fine. But I pride myself on being able to do it live on the wheels, that was the big thing, doing it live. But you know sometimes when you catchin’ them planes and trains and them baggage handlers throwing your tables up on the ramp, even though they in cases, tone arms can get messed up. You know, a lot of things got me man. But sometimes it was my fault when I had to upkeep the equipment. But usually, nine times out of ten, I gave a pretty good show.

No shit man, I used to love those shows. I moved to Houston in 1989 and I came down loving the Ghetto Boys because the first way I ever heard about the Ghetto Boys was reading the liner notes on Public Enemy’s It Takes A Nation.
Yeah that was for that “No Sell Out” we did when Griff was getting fucked with. Beats will subconsciously get in your head, PE, I can listen to PE all day and get hyped. Plus they was uplifting and around that time that was the day of Afrocentricity, Black Awareness, they kind of played the Malcolm X thing to the hilt then, now it’s just totally abandoned now. There’s not a lot of conscious stuff out there.

But before that on the It Takes a Nation of Millions album, they listed all these groups from all over and I was like “What are these gangs or what?” when I first read it when I was like 14 or some shit. I didn’t know what the fuck it was. And it said Ghetto Boys – Houston, TX. And had different groups from different cities I hadn’t heard of.
Yeah because you know what, they were playing the Summit back in the day, I think they changed the name now (Became Compaq Center, now is going to be a huge church of sorts), where the Rockets used to play at. And we was up in the van and we was talking to Griff and we said “Yo man, well we did a song that deals with what’s going on. The industry, about being from Houston and being up in New York.” Now being from New Jersey across the river, there’s a big difference. At one time, Jersey was considered country. Just being from New Jersey and I’d like to set the record straight, New York and New Jersey are not the same place. Totally different. And uh, everybody think, “Oh yeah you from New York.” And that right there, we was talking about that in “No Sell Out” and just about things like that and how things went down with the reporter and Griff said “Yo man I’m gonna play this for Chuck and them,” and they liked it. They even went on a mini tour with Public Enemy, and Heavy D. We got to do a couple of shows with Public Enemy which was cool.

Well I first got Grip It! On That Other Level when I first moved here on a bootleg tape and I didn’t even know what bootleg tapes were at the time. This dude on the street was selling tapes on a table and I bought it and it blew me away dude.
It was pretty good. Now that I look back on it man, I say damn, you know, it’s just hard to believe that people accepted it that much. See cuz then… everybody’s gangsta now.

That shit was explosive back then.
Yeah but there was always a message in the Ghetto Boys stuff. We taught you about hoes. Some guys don’t know about a bad woman. Willie D came with “Let a Hoe Be a Hoe.” Things like that. You could pick something up. Now it’s just to the point where it’s ridiculous I think.

Well Geto Boys still have something to say.
Yeah but I’m speaking about the others. The GB’s will always definitely have something to say, but what are some of the solutions now? We already know 14 years ago what could happen. Now that it’s a little older, what’s different now. It’s like, if I’m blessed to live that long I’ll be 40 years old in March. I never did walk around with my pants hanging off. Do I do the same things that I did when I was 21 doing that shit? No I don’t. I guess it’s whatever you feel in your heart, you go ahead and you do and you pursue.

What made you leave the Geto Boys?
Funny money man. Getting the contract and just signing your name, not knowing what’s going on. Getting charged for ridiculous amounts of studio time where I used to make all that shit up in the bedroom. We would take it to the studio to straighten it out. Just a lot of shit man. The shit just wasn’t adding up right to me, so I went and got me a lawyer you know, a CPA and wanted all my money so that kind of put me in bad terms. So I left that. I went to the BRE man and they had this thing man called Taking Care of Your Business. They had Babyface, Anita Baker, Pebbles, LA Reid, Stevie Wonder and all these cats who were telling you these things and I’m like “Yo, this is the same shit I’m going through.” And around that time I just had had enough, I was ready to get married so I just had to say “Yo, let’s go.”

So what’d you do?
I left. I left that night.

Well I had heard rumors, and then some people said later they weren’t true, but I heard that you left to become a preacher.
You know what? I did and I’m still on my mark right there. I thought at that time that that’s what I was going to do, but I was hard headed, I was gonna do that but after I left that, I got addicted on drugs bruh.

Yeah? After you left the group?
After I left the group. Between that, a bad marriage, and every five minutes you’re hearing that (hums riff from “Mind Playin’ Tricks.”), my mind started playing tricks on me. I thought that I had lost out on something big but there was a greater worth in my life later on. Sort of like, you ever see CB4? Everybody blowing up and my man started getting on that crack? My man Chris Rock, started getting on that crack? I was a crack addict man.

Yeah?
I used to lace and I’m proud of the fact now because I can say “Look what the Lord has done for me.” So I don’t try to hide that, I’m not ashamed of that, but sometimes we go though things in our life to see who we were before all the things happened to us. You know?

How long did that last?
That lasted for a long time, till I had to get that out my system man. I could say for about ten years.

Really? So 1992 – 2002?
Pretty damn much.

Really?
Yeah, I lost my grandfather in March three days before my birthday and I started straightening out myself from that point. This will be my third year of being clean and sober.

Well what did it really take for you to be able to actually stop and really get out of it?
The Lord man. I realized my calling. I come from a church background. My father was a minister, my mother is the mother of a church. My grandmother was a street corner missionary, used to preach out there for the church, don’t turn your back on something that you know that you’re destined to follow bruh. You can run away from things, but then again, I’m like this. I can speak with authority on a variety of subjects. I know what it is to pack a gun, I know what it is to pimp, I know what it is to do drugs. But when I was trying to find help with different things in my life nobody had the authority to tell me how I was feeling at that time. Just from being around different situations in my life, I can say “You know what? I used to do that, I used to live that lifestyle. Used to live in the game, but you know what I did? I took it in another direction. I took it to another level.” So a lot of my so called friends now, I done squared up out the game now. I’m in law enforcement now.

Really?
Going through all that, the Lord blessed me through all of that. I’d just be leaving places and they’d just be getting busted and raided and stuff like that, and I still come out and still got a good record. I never did no wild stuff, but you know when you out there, you out there. Sin is sin man.

What do you do in law enforcement now?
Dig this, I’m doing homeland defense man.

In what capacity? What does that mean?
Just say I’m in security enforcement at airports.

Well that’s real man, that’s a real job.
Well my grandfather man, he was one of the first Black New Jersey state troopers. He always taught me man, he said “Whatever you do, keep a good, clean record.” You know, so I learned that from my grandfather because I never really got along with my father-father. But I found out that I’m pretty much just like him. You don’t fall too far from the tree man.

Well with the talents you have and the story you have, do you have any plans to try and get your name back out there and try to get some music back out there?
Yeah, you know, that’s what I been doing man. I’m more into, I’d like to do some retro type of stuff. See where some of the solutions is. I’m getting tired of seeing my sisters half naked on TV shaking they asses. There’s more to a black woman than just her ass. You know, seeing the brothers maybe come from the working mans part of view. You know everybody ain’t out here bling blinging.

Well there’s cats talking about things today, but they just don’t get the attention. You know as the music business has grown so big, the majors have actually gotten smaller. There’s real shit happening in the Bay, you’re in the Bay now right?
Yeah I’m in the Bay, there’s a lot of underground shit I hear out here. This gotta be the most, record companies, people who just got things, that I ever heard of. A brother that just got killed from out here, Mac Dre, he was on everybody’s shit out here. He had a lot of albums. I got love for the Bay. I always loved Cali man.

What took you out to Cali? Have you been there the whole time or…
Naw man I got homeless, behind all that, after my grandfather passed. September 11th came. I was living in his house, but I got busted in there by 5-0 one night, they didn’t want me to freeze to death so they took me to the night judge and the judge says, “What you doing in there?” And I said, “Well my grandfather passed.” And back then, crack heads would break into a house and steal copper pipes so they could go get high. Well I was in the house, yeah I was smoking, but I was a functioning addict, as you could say, and I didn’t want nobody going in there to steal my shit or whatever. My grandfathers stuff, you know, things like that. So I was staying in there and I thought somebody was breaking in so I come out with a bat and it was 5-0, so they arrest me even though I showed proof that I lived here. This was my grandfathers house. He left it to me, blah blah blah, but they sent me to go stay at the shelter. I kind of missed a spot. Going from March when my grandfather passed to October I had a job for two years. September 11th came and I got unemployed but I got the benefits a month after September 11th, but they sent the anthrax letter through the Trenton, New Jersey Postal facility. So my unemployment checks got caught up in that shit. So I had to wait till December 31st to get like six checks man. So during that time, I got myself together man cuz I didn’t have no money to get high. And I was doing Labor Ready, but then there comes a point when you know what? I’m only hurting myself by doing this man. You know how you just wake up one day and you just say “Fuck it, I want to change my life?” Cuz I saw myself. I said you know, “Here you are, you’re living in a 140 room dorm, peoples fussing and fighting all mad and shit.” I said, “Get your shit right!” I started getting my shit right I got myself together. Now what’s funny. Before I started getting high, I used to think people who got high, there was something wrong with them. Now, you gotta look at the individual. You never know what happens in a persons life to get them to that point man. So that kind of taught me the lesson man that we are never better than the next man going through things. That sort of showed me the compassion.

Where were you before San Jose?
Trenton, New Jersey. I went back home.

Did you go there right after the Geto Boys?
No, I stayed in Houston for about two more years. I didn’t move back home until like ’94. But my last year living in Texas I went to live in Dallas for a while, which was really cool man. It’s a honor man to be considered a Texas legend. To be considered highly in Texas, boy you have to do something. I’m always gonna have love for the dirty south and you’ll never find people like how Houston opened up the doors when I first got there. I find it fascinating man good people are down there in Houston.

You still talk to the Geto Boys?
Bushwick Bill man. If I’m cool with anybody that’s Bushwick motherfuckin’ Bill. Bushwick keep it real. When I was staying on top of the car lot within about two days of meeting me and told his sister that “he (Ready Red) is going to live with us.”

You were staying on top of Lil J’s car lot?
Yeah Lil J’s car lot man. That’s where the Makin’ Trouble album got done at. That’s where a lot of the concepts came up at.

That was the beginnings. Where exactly was that car lot?
1245 North Shepherd. Then we moved the facility down to 19th and Shepherd. It’s torn down now. There used to be a Popeyes, a Burger King and a KFC. I would make little songs for girls to keep food up in there.

Well the Popeyes and the Burger King are still there. So what are you doing right now to get back into music? What’s the plan?
Well I hooked up with who I call the Bruce Lee of turntablism and that’s DJ Qbert. And a friend of mine that I was telling you about earlier, Jasper Bradley, he had come out here about 13 years before, and he had met DJ Qbert and he said Qbert wanted to meet me. So Qbert held a party for me at his house and we started talking and before I left, Q said “You know what Red, I got something for ya.” I told him the story, I was taking care of my grandparents, and he hooked me up with a 1200. Now most people, they’ll wanna put a package in your hand, Qbert put something that he know I know how to do. And we just took it from there and been down ever since. He wants me to do an old school segment on his old school DVD’s he’s doing. See I wasn’t really that hip to how significant Qbert was. I had heard of Qbert, but wow. He’s the most humblest cat in that position that I ever have met man. And he respects my craft. There’s a big difference between a hip hop DJ and a turntablist. I told him, I said, “Man, I can’t do that stuff dude.” And it’s funny how a lot of turntablists there, they can’t keep it going back and forth all night. But they can get on one turntable and blow your fuckin’ mind. But I told him, “I rock breaks man, I rock breaks for MC’s.” And I keep it going, never lost the skills. Even in my most bad times of being on drugs, I’ve always been able to maintain the turntables, you know what I mean? I was into this way before it was an industry, so I’m always going to have that. I keep myself in shape. Still make beats.

When did you start Djing exactly?
Man I started Djing in like ’79. But I kept quitting between ’79 and ’81. But my cousins, Rock Master Shock and Mixmaster Kid, they got a gig down at the roller rink and they wanted me to come down to the roller rink and I said “Man I’m not doing this shit.” But I went down to the roller rink and heard they system and went home and started practicing every day. And just kept doing it man and it’s brought me this far. It’s been a while man. Damn near half my life. And you know what? I missed a part. Bambatta said “Trenton rocks to the Planet Rock.” I thought, “Why would he mention this little three square mile town?” You know what I’m sayin’? And that was sort of like the Force calling you to come and do this hip-hop thing. I’ll always hold him in high regard. Now I can’t stay off the turntables man.

No shit.
That was the thing to do man. I stayed up the street from a guy named Kenny Ville, he was like a Kool Herc of Trenton. Then you had Psychotic Jet. These are all early pioneers of disco. And I would go listen to the music. The rap thing didn’t explode yet. Then like late ’79 there was a record, it was by Fat Larry’s Band. King Tim the Third, he was a radio personality, MC, he was rappin’, this was before I even heard of Grandmaster Flash, the whole real deal Bronx scene. Then “Rappers Delight” came out. And from that I said “Man what is that?” That was what was for me. Cuz I never was the club DJ type. Club DJs are smooth, I’m kind of raw. You know what I’m sayin’? I don’t like to dress. Things like that man. I could keep it going. I was a club DJ at that time and I could blend seamlessly and keep it on that beat and blend all night. But then I started getting into hip hop and said this is what I wanted to do. And then I heard that Adventures of Grandmaster Flash, I said “Yeah, that’s definitely the shit, that’s definitely the bomb.” I always wanted to be the next Grandmaster Flash cuz he’s still one of the best DJs ever in the world. Cuz everytime you cue that record and listen to it through the headphones, and you do a scratch you paying homage to Grandmaster Flash and Grandwizard Theodore. So now they talkin’ like they corny, but to have somebody invent this, you know what I’m sayin’?

Who say’s they’re corny?
Yeah like they ain’t shit now you know what I’m sayin’? When somebody invents something. Now when they tell me about Jackie Chan I say “You know what, Bruce Lee gave him his start because he was one of his stunt men.” Now you got a lot of badass DJs out here now, but who you think gave them the inkling to even get into this?

Well what about you? If there was an MC you were feeling or another DJ or something could you go out and do a project?
If I felt it was in my heart, yeah I would jump on the chance.

Are you in touch with any MC’s at all?
Me and Bill kick it. Bill says when he gets into a position he’ll help a brother, which he has through the years, you know? Actually I been working on doing smooth jazz and stuff like that. I still got my hip hop flavor up in there. So you know I’m doing things that I’ve always tried to do. I can say this, I’ve always tried to be experimental and innovative. I wasn’t scared to try new things and most of the time, I will say this, Rap A Lot did let me get away with a lot of stuff.

Those records were radical man.
Yeah a lot of them were pretty cool. I felt kind of good when Rick Rubin said “Hey Red you know what you doing.” Cuz to me Rick, when we did have the opportunity to get there, the only thing he did with that record was enhance the sound.

Yeah he cleaned it up real good.
Yeah he cleaned it up real good man. I said “Wow, he really didn’t fuck with none of my shit. Considering who he was and who he had worked with….

“Gangster of Love” had to change though right?
“Gangster of Love” had to change, so they say we got sued $50,000 a piece. By Steve Miller. I never seen no paperwork on that shit. You know some shit you just had to accept.

Did you do the production on the original song?
No, actually Johnny C did that. I never would use that much of a record.

So what did it turn into, what was the new sample?
The new song was by Lynard Skynard, “Sweet Home Alabama.”

And they cleared that in advance?
I guess so man, I guess Rick had a hook up. But I was shocked man, the next thing I know, I was calling up to Def American, Rick was like, “Well you guys is over at Rap A Lot again.” I would like to find out what happened there.

You don’t know what happened?
I have no damn idea what happened. It’s just me leaving was an accumulation of a lot of things.

Do ever have contact with Rick Rubin these days?
Not at all man. Rick told me after I left he said “Red if you ever put something together I’ll listen to it.”

Put something together. Find you an MC, someone in the Bay, some raw dude and put something together. Do some beats, some live cuts, take ‘em back.
I might do that. Oh yeah. Well, let me say this, since I’ve found the Lord, I’ve finally found peace in my life. I lost my older sister in a car accident last year man, didn’t relapse off of that, because she was down for me at the worst time in my life, so I kind of honor her memory staying clean, just doing my thing. I enjoy getting up, going to work, helping out the country right now. Doing my thing, what I’m doing, so I’m happy. I’m happy man and that’s the big part. Because I wasn’t happy when I had money, and knowing all the things that I thought you was supposed to have at the time. The best thing you can have is peace of mind. It took me a long time to get there, and there’s something greater in store for you. I got my mentor now, God. I became a counselor behind that. I can help people out with what I know now. I know what it feels like to want a drug man. When I used to call people 2, 3, 4 o’clock at night they would say “Well the book says you should feel…” And I said “Hold up man, you don’t know how I’m feeling right now. I feel like going to rob a gas station so I could go get high. How you gonna be telling me I should be feeling like this when you don’t know how I feel?” Some of the people that I rent apartments to, they go through the same thing. I say “You know what dog, I been through that, you can’t bullshit me.” I done been a dope fiend. I done sold everything, turntables, records, this and that, whatever I could do to get high at one point in time. I used to do the same thing dog. But you know what? I woke up one day and said “I’m tired of this shit.” I get personal, but it’s the truth though. I ain’t got nothing to hide man. One day, I’m gonna write a book.

HEY THIS IS THE ROCK MASTER SHOCK REDS CUZ FROM JERSEY I WISH WE COULD GO BACK TO THOSE DAYS WHEN HIP HOP WAS REAL AND WAS MORE OF A CULTURE INSTEAD OF A MOCKERY.I HAVE TO TELL HOW WE WERE ROCKIN HERE IN JERSEY AT THE ROLLER RINK KIDS USE TO COME JUST TO SEE US GET DOWN NO ONE IN TRENTON WAS ROCKIN THOSE BEATS LIKE US.WE USE TO COME IN LATE JUST TO HEAR THE KIDS BE LIKE YO WERE ARE THOSE SUPER STAR DJS RED WAS THE FRONT MAN WHO PUT THOSE UPTOWN BEATS ON THE 12S AND THE KIDS WERE GOING CARZY TO THAT STUFF. THEY DID NOT HEAR THAT STUFF ON THE RADIO. STUFF YOU ONLY HEAR IN N.Y. RED USE TO SPORT SPIKES ANT GARRISON BOOTS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE ZULU NATION BUT WE HAD A GOOD SHOW.STRAIGHT HIP HOP NO RAP GOOD MUSIC. I WAS THE BEATBOY OFN THE CREW KANGOL CAZELS-LEES-BIENG A 5 % STUFF LIKE THAT THE K.I.D. WAS MORE IN TO BLENDING AND THE CLUB MISIC BUT WE ALL WERE TOGETHER I USE TO BRING THE GIRLS TO THE DJ BOOTH TO HAVE SOME FUN THEY LOVED US THOSE WERE THE DAYS HEY RED CALL YOUR CUZ DJ ROCK MASTER OUT

HEY THIS IS THE ROCK MASTER SHOCK REDS CUZ FROM JERSEY I WISH WE COULD GO BACK TO THOSE DAYS WHEN HIP HOP WAS REAL AND WAS MORE OF A CULTURE INSTEAD OF A MOCKERY.I HAVE TO TELL HOW WE WERE ROCKIN HERE IN JERSEY AT THE ROLLER RINK KIDS USE TO COME JUST TO SEE US GET DOWN NO ONE IN TRENTON WAS ROCKIN THOSE BEATS LIKE US.WE USE TO COME IN LATE JUST TO HEAR THE KIDS BE LIKE YO WERE ARE THOSE SUPER STAR DJS RED WAS THE FRONT MAN WHO PUT THOSE UPTOWN BEATS ON THE 12S AND THE KIDS WERE GOING CARZY TO THAT STUFF. THEY DID NOT HEAR THAT STUFF ON THE RADIO. STUFF YOU ONLY HEAR IN N.Y. RED USE TO SPORT SPIKES ANT GARRISON BOOTS STRAIGHT OUT OF THE ZULU NATION BUT WE HAD A GOOD SHOW.STRAIGHT HIP HOP NO RAP GOOD MUSIC. I WAS THE BEATBOY OFN THE CREW KANGOL CAZELS-LEES-BIENG A 5 % STUFF LIKE THAT THE K.I.D. WAS MORE IN TO BLENDING AND THE CLUB MISIC BUT WE ALL WERE TOGETHER I USE TO BRING THE GIRLS TO THE DJ BOOTH TO HAVE SOME FUN THEY LOVED US THOSE WERE THE DAYS HEY RED CALL YOUR CUZ DJ ROCK MASTER OUT

You know you 4got your roots bitch & a hoe is a hoe don't get mad at these niggaz 4 having ass shaking in the videos. And 2nd of all how dair you make the getoboys look bad thats why your broke and scarface is rich biaatch. and rest in piss to your grandfather hoe!

all u cats out there dissing red wish yall can go where he has been if yall came up north we would show yall a little something inbred country bumpkins go back to school and get some education and stop screwing your sister

1st of all God bless all the hater's. I'll pray for you and ask God to give you peace in your life. And if you check your history I played a big part in the early days of the Ghetto/Geto Boys development but who really cares thats all dust in the wind now.So once again thanks for all the positive comments and again God bless the hater's

Man, I know I'm late on this post and interview, but I've always wondered what happened to Red. God's blessings on your life bro, and I'm glad that things are at peace for you know. I still tell people that you are one of the best to ever do it, and I still believe that. I'm still holding down Texas man, and would love to hear some of your upcoming stuff and maybe even work with you one day production-wise. Stay up and keep your faith to the sky.

Too bad things didn't develop any further with red and the rest of the crew after the original release of the "geto boys" (1990). That was, in my mind, the pinnacle of all their albums (even in all of hiphop) and red was down with it, supplying the mix, cutting like crazy. So what if he didn't get rich with the rest of the boys? He split, followed his own path, and found his own peace so fackalyall trampy ass-holes.

ready red will 4 ever be a g to the mutherfukin e-t-o boy gald to see you doin well may god keep blessing you and keep you in his mist i wiil always love what you did with the getoboys to all you haters give respect to red you couldn't walk a mile in his shoes keep your head up red mad love by way of alabama the jordan king i would love to see you do sump wit the god k-rino

I was there from the begin and many say I was the begin of Rap in Houston like when I got a copy of T-SKI in 78 from DJ Re_ Ale__ , and set Houston on fire with it, even know nobody knew what it was. I'M TELLING YOU that Ready Red is a legend and was one of the few real people back than.